Silver & Cold
by DeiSara
Summary: In an effort to collect a huge bounty, Kakuzu tricks an unwitting Hidan into confronting a demon from his past, but will the Zombie Brothers live to collect the money? "M" for Hidan's mouth and violence!
1. Not Friends

Hello! This is the first chapter of my very first fan fiction! It's all about Hidan and Kakuzu. It's a bit AU, but the events can roughly be situated before their encounters with Asuma and the like. In future chapters I'll be taking a lot of liberty with Hidan's past, so bear with me! Any comments, suggestions, or words of encouragement are greatly appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to read, and please comment to let me know if you're interested in more. ^_^ *DeiSara

((The world of _Naruto Shippuden_, and the characters contained therein, belong to Masashi Kishimoto.))

~!~

**Silver & Cold**

Chapter One : Not Friends

Hidan sat against the cold stone wall of the collection office. For the past two hours he'd been thumbing the beads of his necklace- at first in prayer, then in counting, then in mere boredom. He understood why he'd been paired with Kakuzu, but sometimes he thought that Sasori may have been a better partner for him, at least Sasori would have never made him wait for anything.

Hidan looked up at the sky and squinted against the sun. It was already very late in the afternoon and they still had at least a day's worth of walking to do to get back to the only Akatsuki hideout in the area, and the place where they were supposed to meet Pain. He stood up and stretched, his scythe scraping the wooden porch as he did so. He adjusted the rope that held the scythe across his back before he walked to the front door of the collection office and stepped inside.

The bodyguard outside the door scowled at him.

"Could you get out of the way?"

"You're with the other guy in the cloak?" The bodyguard asked as he examined the clouds on Hidan's coat.

"You're a real smart one. Stop being a jerk and let me in there!"

The bodyguard rested a hand on the kunai strapped at his hip. "Wait just a minute-"

" 'ey! Kakuzu! Get the fuck out here!" Hidan yelled over the bodyguard's shoulder.

"Keep it down, there's important business deals going on in there!"

Hidan arched a brow. He was unimpressed and getting more annoyed by the moment. "Just open the fucking door and let me get my partner."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." The bodyguard said, pulling a kunai from his waist and holding it in front of him in a rather pathetic defensive position.

"Oh? You want to play with me? Just a moment-" Hidan took the metal pendant of his necklace in hand and whispered a quick prayer to Jashin. When he was finished he swung his scythe around in one quick motion, knocked the kunai out of the man's hand, and pressed the cold point of his top blade against the man's throat. Hidan wet his lips and laughed, "Finally some fun! You'll make a pretty lame sacrifice, but it'll be enough for now."

The bodyguard trembled and started yelling for mercy, which only made Hidan grin. Just as Hidan was putting more pressure against the blade, the door behind the bodyguard opened and there stood Kakuzu with another man behind him.

"What's going on out here!" The man behind Kakuzu shouted.

Kakuzu's eyes lit up with anger as he realized the situation. "Hidan!" Kakuzu was squeezing the handle of his briefcase so hard that his knuckles were white.

"Kakuzu, you're just in time! I was just about to sacrifice this jerk!"

"Hidan! I'll tear off your head if you touch that man!"

Hidan growled in frustration, but finally backed down after a tense moment of staring at Kakuzu. "You really owe me Kakuzu." Hidan hissed through gritted teeth.

Kakuzu's jaw tensed as he pushed past the thankful, now weeping, doorman who'd fallen to his knees. Hidan stepped back and returned his scythe to his back. The boss of the collection station, Yasashiko, who'd been standing behind Kakuzu stepped forward to help his doorman to his feet.

"Kakuzu-sama, next time you come in, leave your friend at home?" the Yasashiko chided as Hidan and Kakuzu made their way outside.

"He's not my friend." Kakuzu growled under his breath.

Once the two of them were outside, Hidan stopped at Kakuzu's side. As they stood on the side of the road, Hidan looked down to see Kakuzu testing the weight of the briefcase in his hand.

"Not friends, Kakuzu?" Hidan said with a light laugh.

"No." Kakuzu said coldly, but even under the chilly tone there was something unconvincing about his answer. "Let's go."

Hidan scratched the back of his head, his smirk tilting into an expression of annoyance. Kakuzu stepped onto the road, but began walking in the opposite direction of the hide out.

Hidan stepped out into the road after him, but stopped a few feet back to watch Kakuzu. "'ey, 'ey, Kakuzu! You're going the wrong way you know."

"No, I'm not." Kakuzu answered but did not stop walking.

"Hey! Kakuzu, what is this?" Hidan said as he jogged up to Kakuzu's side.

"I'm not going to meet Pain-sensei just yet. I've been given a bounty that I cannot refuse."

"What?" Hidan stepped in front of Kakuzu and turned to face him.

Kakuzu stopped in his tracks and slowly looked up, into Hidan's lavender eyes. Such light, pretty colored eyes for such a psychopath... Kakuzu thought. "Get out of my way Hidan. Yasashiko-san just informed me of a bounty that is worth three times what I just collected, and I am not going to miss out on the opportunity. Now, get out of my way."

"Have you forgotten that Yasashiko is not who we answer to?" Hidan said, plucking at one of the red cloud over his own chest.

"Pain-sensei can wait, this money is more important. No one has been able to kill this man, but I know that I can do it."

Hidan sighed in frustration, "You remember what happened last time we were late?"

"Yes, you mean the last time that you made us late because you had to stop and pray for four hours out of guilt from visiting that adults-only bath house near Kumogakure?"

Hidan reddened a little in the cheeks and gritted his teeth, "That's different! I had a good reason, and your's is just greed!"

"You don't have to come with me. I am perfectly capable of claiming this bounty in Yugakure and then returning to the hideout on my own." Kakuzu said with more calmness than usual.

At the mention of Yugakure, Hidan's scowl turned to an expression of surprise, and sudden distraction that was wholly unlike him. "Yugakure?" He said slowly, after a moment of recovery.

Kakuzu nodded. There was no way that Hidan was going back there. He'd left Yugakure- his home village, and his master, in a bloody rage several years earlier. Not only was it dangerous for him to return there, but he was afraid of what he might do if he went back.

"No. I won't go there... it's... too far, and I don't want to hear Pain bitch for the next year."

Kakuzu's gaze was steady as Hidan spoke, revealing no emotion. "All right. I'll return when I've completed my bounty."

Hidan shook his head and spit at Kakuzu's feet. Even if they did fight and sling death threats at each other all of the time, they were supposed to be partners, and it ticked Hidan off that Kakuzu didn't even blink an eye at the idea of them separating. He also didn't seem to care what Pain would think of the idea.

Kakuzu didn't say anything more as he walked around the speechless Hidan and on down the road. Hidan almost looked back at him, but he set his jaw with annoyance and instead forced himself to start walking towards the hideout. Before he even noticed what he was doing his fingers had found the prayer beads and began kneading them in a whispered prayer of rage, and a desperate plea to forget.

~!~

Kakuzu switched the briefcase he was carrying to his other hand. He didn't like carrying such a large, and obvious, amount of money around but he didn't have much of a choice at the moment. Shortly after he'd left Hidan, he'd turned from the main road, favoring the less traveled, and more concealed route, through the forest. Yugakure was too far away for him to make it by nightfall, and he knew he'd have to stop and rest along the way if he would want a chance at killing his bounty quickly and efficiently. Yugakure had once been a powerful ninja village, but had long ago given up its place in the ninja world and instead opened up it's healing and recreational hot springs to the traveling public and the leisure classes. One of the bath houses sounded much better than the forest floor, but Kakuzu didn't want to push himself and he wanted to allow time for his secret plan to germinate.

He walked until the sun had set and he found a small clearing to rest in. The weather was nice enough that he didn't have to start a fire and so he rested against a tree, with his briefcase of money tucked safely between his lower back and the tree trunk. As with any ninja, Kakuzu more or less slept with one figurative eye open, but in the early hours of the morning he was taken by surprise at awakening with a Kunai to his throat.

"Don't move. All I want is that briefcase." An unfamiliar voice hissed from his right.

~!~


	2. Partners

**Silver & Cold **

**Chapter Two : Partners**

Kakuzu's lips turned with a silent snarl. He couldn't believe he'd let himself get caught off guard. Yet, there was something in the unfamiliar voice that told Kakuzu the thief's foolish confidence wouldn't last long. The one advantage of the ridiculous cloaks that Pain made them wear was that his hands were hidden by the ends of the sleeves.

"_Jiongu_." He whispered as he placed a hidden palm against the earth beside him.

"I said, don't move! Don't talk either, no trouble OK?" The thief leaned over to reach for the briefcase, his other hand still holding the kunai to Kakuzu's hooded throat.

Just as the thief started to pull the briefcase out from behind Kakuzu's back, he let out a strangled gasp of surprise. Kakuzu's hand burst from the ground and squeezed the thief's kunai-holding hand with a bone-snapping strength. Kakuzu reached up with his other hand and caught the falling kunai before it landed in his lap.

As Kakuzu lept up to pull the thief forward and finish him he noticed a thin and bloodied line across the man's throat. He knew he hadn't done that and it would have been impossible for the man to have done it to himself. The thief let go of his hold on the briefcase and put his free hand to his throat to obstruct the blood that was leaking from his painful, but non-fatal, neck wound.

"Wha-what are y-you?" The thief coughed, his eyes wide with horror.

Kakuzu released his hold on the man's broken wrist and tossed the kunai away as he looked over the man's shoulder to see Hidan standing a few yards behind the thief and licking blood off the end of his top scythe blade.

"I think you should be more worried about him." Kakuzu said with a nod that made the whimpering thief turn to look at Hidan and then promptly fall to the ground in horror. Kakuzu pulled his threaded hand from the ground and drew it back to his body.

"I couldn't exactly let you have all the fun, now could I, 'eh Kakuzu?" Hidan grinned just as he took an extra lick from the blood stain on his blade.

Kakuzu said nothing, pleased that his plan had worked so far. Hidan had shown up later than he'd expected, but at least he was there. He looked down at the thief and resisted the urge to bash his brains out with the briefcase. It was better to let Hidan have a sacrafice, butter him up some.

"Of course not, partner. He's all yours." Kakuzu was really outdoing himself, but he needed Hidan for his mission in Yugakure.

~!~

_Partner_.

Hidan scoffed at Kakuzu and threw off his Akatsuki cloak. The terrified thief began to back away, crawling as best as he could with his flopping wrist and bloodied throat.

"Uh-uh," Hidan said, waving his scythe as if it were a pointed finger, "not so fast my thieving friend." With the remaining blood on his scythe he drew the encircled triangle that would bind the thief to him. He tossed the scythe into the grass and slipped his retractable javelin from his belt. The javelin extended with a graceful snap of his wrist.

"This is going to hurt," he said with a giggle of pleasure as the curse began to take effect and his skin polarized to the black and white of his ritual form. He spun the javelin in his hand so that the needle sharp end was facing his exposed belly. "Let's see...the small intestine?" He traced the sharp end along his skin and watched with joy as the thief stopped, frozen in fear and turned back to face Hidan as he too felt the teasing scrape of the javelin on his torso.

"Nah, it's always a little too messy... let's go with a kidney!" Hidan shouted in gleeful triumph as he slammed the pointed instrument into his left kidney and thus into the thief's as well. Hidan's groans were drowned out by the deafening shriek of the thief.

"Hidan! Stop playing with your sacrafice and let's get on with it." Kakuzu growled.

"But you said he was all mine." Hidan said darkly as he panted through a mouth-full of his own blood.

"Yes, I did say that didn't I...but I have business to attend to in Yugakure and you're holding me up."

"Oh give me one more fucking second!" He slowly pulled the javelin out and paused a moment to admire the sunlight as it glinted on the dark ruby liquid that sheathed the weapon. "I think it's time to shut you up." He pressed the end of the javelin between his ribs and gasped as he felt the needle sharp end pierce his left lung. He twisted the javelin and shoved it in deeper. Two of his ribs snapped as the wider part of the tapered weapon pushed between them. The pain was so sweet, and he could already feel the thief dying, the blood filling both of their quivering, punctured lungs.

"Ah," Hidan gasped, enjoying the final rapid thuds of his heart that were echoed and intensified by the thief's own. In a few moments the thief gave a bubbling groan then collapsed back onto the grass and laid motionless. Hidan had started to tremble as he felt the other man's death move through him. At the same time he felt waves of electricty through his body, the sensation of mighty Jashin's healing powers.

Hidan yanked the javelin from his ribcage and knelt to wipe it off on the grass. Dark blood gurgled from the chest wound, but the entrance to his kidney wound was already starting to heal. He retracted the javelin and said a quick prayer to Jashin, bloodying the pendant as he did so.

~!~

Kakuzu had watched the ritual with his usual expression, one that was slightly angry but mostly impassive. While Hidan's fighting style was often haphazard, careless and bordering on pure insanity, Kakuzu did admire the precision with which Hidan chose vital organs and various ways of torture. Of course, he would never tell Hidan this.

"There's a river three hundred yards in that direction." Kakuzu said with a nod as he picked up the briefcase. The direction and the river also led to Yugakure. "That is, if you're planning on going with me."

"Why do you think I came back, baka? At any rate, you're lucky I did or this guy could have been the end of the great Kakuzu. What was that you always tell me about never letting my guard down?"

"Yes, I am so fortunate." Kakuzu said in a rare attempt at sarcasm. The mistake had been ambrassing and frankly, Hidan's teasing was enraging but it had all worked out tremendously in Kakuzu's favor.

Hidan gathered his things and walked past Kakuzu in the direction of the river.

"How did you find me anyway? You've never been very good at tracking people." Kakuzu asked as he stepped after him.

"Don't be an asshole Kakuzu, I just followed the stink of all that money you've got on you."

When they reached the river Kakuzu set about preparing a breakfast of wild rabbit, captured and heated a la fire-style via his tiger masked heart. He sat on his briefcase and dug into a rabbit leg while behind him Hidan washed off in the river.

~!~

Hidan's flesh wounds were now closed but he was still sore on the inside. The pain didn't bother him so much as he reveled in the feeling of it. It made him feel like he'd accomplished what he had sworn to do, and that was to live a life of death and destruction. Yet, the smell of cooking rabbit was enough to pull his mind back to earthly matters.

" 'Ey Kakuzu, don't be a dick and eat that whole thing. I'm hungry too you know, saving your life is hard work."

"Aren't you more worried about how Pain is going to react, considering how late we are now?"

"Fuck him. I mean, he can wait right?"

"Yes, he can, but does this mean you're going with me to Yugakure?"

Hidan stumbled into his pants and padded across the grass to reach over Kakuzu's shoulder and steal the other leg he'd just picked up to eat.

"I guess it does," he said with a sigh, "Can't leave an unguarded jerk like yourself to wander alone in the world now can I?" As he chewed on his rabbit he tried to push back that wave of darkness that rose within him at the mention of Yugakure.

"I couldn't do it without you," Kakuzu replied with an odd sincerity as he sliced a piece of breast meat off the rabbit without turning around to look at Hidan. "Let's make some money."

~!~

**Author's Note: **

So, I apologize for taking two years to update this story. A lot has happened in my life in that time and I was completely pulled away from this. However, I now feel like I have a better sense of where this is going and there are at least three more chapters and an epilogue in the works. :) And, yes, one of Hidan's lines and one of Kakuzu's lines have been shamelessly stolen from the Wii game "Naruto Shippuden Clash of Ninja Revolution III" and it is used as an homage to that game being the best fighting game ever! Especially when it is played with four of your friends and inapproriate comments are made... o.o Don't look at me like that, you all know who you are!


	3. Yugakure Flashback in Black White & Red

**Silver & Cold**

**Chapter Three: Yugakure / / / Flashback in Black, White and Red**

Four long days of traveling by foot finally brought the pair to the edge of the Yugakure village. Along the way Kakuzu had deposited the loot from his briefcase at a respectable bank, where his money was guaranteed safe under penalty of total annihilation. Hidan complained a lot about the distance, but all that mattered to Kakuzu was that he continued on their way to Yugakure. As they stood overlooking the city Kakuzu felt that then was as good a time as any to reveal exactly who his bounty was.

"We're here for Sang Waru, have you heard of him?" Kakuzu said casually.

~!~ **Six Years Ealier **~!~

The gentle breeze and the birdsong that drifted through the tall pines outside of Yugakure were unaffected by the silver-haired teenager that ran haphazardly out of the village. The iron pathway clanged from his footfall and sent ripples through the steaming pools around him. The way that the young man kept looking over his shoulder would have made any observer think that he was being chased by someone or something. Yet, even when he reached the forest no one had followed him outside of the village. It would still be an hour before Kaiden's body was found dead in the middle of the Yugakure Ninja Academy's sparring room. The young man ran up the cliffside path, practically pulling himself up the precarious climb with the ropes that lined it.

His headband thumped against his collar bone as he ran, the silver plaque was stained with blood; the blood of Kaiden, his former teammate and best friend.

He finally had to stop and lean against a tree, trying desperately to catch his breath. It was almost as if he could feel the world spinning beneath him. He burst into a fit of coughing before he was able to look at his surroundings. Before him, surrounded by dark trees was a crumbling temple made of a strange black stone that reflected the sunlight. It was known in the village as the Temple of the Wicked Heart, or simply the forbidden temple. Until this moment he'd thought that it was only an old wives tale meant to keep curious children out of the forest.

He sat up and back so that he was kneeling in the dirt. He looked down at this hands that were muddied by the blood of his former comrade.

"Hello young shinobi. We've been waiting for you."

A deep, yet melodic voice startled the young man from his thoughts. He immediately moved away from the tree and backed away from the figure that had appeared before him. It was a tall man in silver and black Dō-maru armor with a dangerous looking naginata strapped to his back. His eyes were a startling violet that seemed to glow in the dim light that filtered through the canopy. The young man had never seen eyes that color before and he immediately withdrew a kunai from his hip pouch and took a defensive stance. The man laughed softly, as if he'd heard an inside joke. His plum colored hair was pulled back in a neat topknot that was held in place with a smooth silver slide.

"Your first instinct would be correct. You look like you would make a particularly interesting sacrifice to the almighty Jashin; but I wonder, that blood on your hands... I would like to hear your story before I kill you little shinobi."

"I'm not little, I'm sixteen you fucking jerk. Back the fuck off!"

"You've always been spirited Hidan, and now I think you're finally ready to find your true path."

"How the hell did you know my name?" As Hidan spoke the forest began to dissolve around him. The dirt beneath his feet turned to cobbled stone and the trees came together to form the familiar buildings of the Yugakure town square.

"I've known your name for a long time." The man's voice was disembodied now, as a crowd of villagers had replaced the lone figure.

They were all staring at Hidan. _What have you done, where have you gone, _they all seemed to whisper at once. Hidan fell back with a growl and came up hard against the edge of the central fountain.

"I didn't mean to kill him! We had an argument... He was going to ruin everything for me, he didn't understand that the academy was all that I've ever really had!"

_What have you done, where have you gone?_

A scream of rage and frustration tore from Hidan's lungs as he threw the Kunai into the nearest villager, his father. The kunai passed through his chest as if through thin air and disappeared.

"I didn't mean to kill Kaiden! Not really... I just... no one got it, no one would give me a fucking chance... and the one thing, they wanted to take it all away!"

Hidan collapsed to his knees and took his head in his hands. His body shook with the involuntary sobbing that overtook him. He jerked away when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and when he looked up he was back in the forest. The man who'd found him in front of the temple was standing over him.

"It has always been your destiny to turn your back on the people of Yugakure. Lord Jashin has been waiting patiently for you, and he appreciates your first sacrifice."

"What the fuck are you talking about! Back off!" Hidan pushed himself up from the ground using the tree behind him. He shrugged off the man's hand and swung at him with another kunai. The man dodged it effortlessly.

"Oh? You want to play?" The man grinned, a maniacal light coming into his violet eyes. Hidan raised the kunai again and stepped forward to slice at the man's abdomen but before he could even realize what had happened he felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder and looked over to see that the blade of the naginata had gone through his shoulder, just under his collar bone. He screamed in agony and collapsed to his knees as the man pulled the blade out of Hidan's body.

"Your spirit is strong but careless, and you must learn to harness it for Jashin's will."

"Shut the fuck up! I don't want to hear this shit, just leave me the fuck alone." He pressed a hand to his shoulder wound. The blood that poured from it was a startling sight as its fresh warmth mixed with the cold dried blood of Kaiden's. The man grinned again and brought the end of the naginata to his mouth so that he could reach out his tongue and lap up some of Hidan's blood from the wet metal.

Hidan stumbled to his feet and turned to run, but something suddenly stopped him, a terrible pain shot through his already punctured shoulder. It felt as if he was being stabbed again and when he turned around the man was standing there with the blade in his own shoulder.

"I'll do what I have to to make you slow down and listen to me Hidan. Come."

It was suddenly as if Hidan had no control over his own body. His right foot took a step forward, and then his left until he was within the man's reach.

"Who are you and what the hell are you doing to me you sick bastard!"

"Huh, you are lucky... that Lord Jashin chose you for his own, otherwise I would make you mine right now. You would make such a stunning sacrifice." The man reached out a hand that was covered in his own blood and smoothed the hair away from Hidan's face until it was slicked back flat against his skull. He studied Hidan's dark green eyes before speaking quietly, "Much better. I am Sang Waru, but you will call me Waru-sensei from this day forward."

"Not in your dreams you jerk!" Hidan gritted his teeth, he may not be able to return to the village or his family, but he would be damned if he would let himself become the play thing of this man or his Lord. Hidan pulled his head back and spit in Sang Waru's face. Sang Waru twisted the blade of the naginata and pushed it farther into his shoulder, but Hidan felt it too, as if it were in his own body. Sang Waru then planted a kick squarely on Hidan's chest which sent him flat onto his back.

"You are correct Hidan, for you will be Lord Jashin's in reality and it will be the only reality you will ever know." Sang Waru pulled the naginata from his shoulder and placed the razor sharp point over his heart. Hidan could feel the needle-like end against his own flesh even though there was nothing visible there. Hidan looked down and around to see that he'd stepped into, and was now lying in, a curse mark that Sang Waru had spread in the grass using the blood from his own shoulder wound. He realized then that he was under some kind of strange blood curse and there was nothing he could do.

Sang Waru closed his eyes and slipped a silver beaded talisman from inside his shirt. He counted the beads nearest the pendant as he whispered something that sounded like a prayer. When he opened his eyes they were illuminated by a terrifying and entrancing glow. Then he thrust the naginata up into his chest.

**~!~ Six Years Later ~!~**

"Kakuzu! Have you fucking lost your mind?" After a long moment of shocked silence, those were the first words that came to Hidan when Kakuzu spoke the name of Sang Waru.

Hidan stood next to Kakuzu on the cliffs overlooking the former Village Hidden in Hot Water. The main road into town wound out of the forest to their left, and down a path carved out of the pale cliff walls. Once the forest ended, the dirt path joined a walkway made of a special iron that was only found in the nearby Shiro mountain range. The Shiro iron could withstand the heat of the water while not conducting heat itself and could only be melded into shape by a special Earth Style jutsu. The pathway allowed travelers and residents access to the village that was more or less an island surrounded by scalding pools of geothermically heated water.

"Damnit Kakuzu you fucking tricked me. How do you even know that name?" Hidan gritted his teeth and wrung the handle of his scythe.

"Keep it down." Kakuzu said with a growl as he nodded to the valley below and the steady string of tourists that were navigating the walkway.

"How do you expect me...you fucking idiot, you have no idea what he's like. You can't kill him!"

"I know." Kakuzu said simply as his red and green eyes met Hidan.

It was in that moment that everything suddenly made sense to Hidan. Kakuzu knew that he wouldn't be able to kill Sang Waru and so he had manipulated Hidan into coming with him. Kakuzu never intended to try and kill Sang Waru, he'd meant for Hidan to do it all along.

"If we meet him face to face he will kill you, you fucking dumb bastard." Hidan said quietly as he looked back down at Yugakure. He'd heard that ever since the ninja hierarchy within Yugakure had dissolved it had become renowned as a vacation spot. While the village's many natural hot springs were the main draw, the village had a vibrant underbelly of drugs, alcohol and gambling that came alive once the sun set. The town was supposedly ran by a warlord that raked in the dough like some fat pig whose dogs ran all around doing his dirty work. There were even rumors that this warlord only kept the peace as long as he was given a virgin sacrifice every other week. Hidan was always one for death and destruction, but in his eyes his former village had become a disgrace, a disgrace that Hidan had always tried to leave behind.

~!~

"Anyway, we won't find him here. I left him for dead five years ago." Hidan adjusted the strap of his scythe so that it was once again in its usual place against his back.

"Hidan, just a moment ago you made it sound as if he was here and waiting to kill us." Kakuzu had been expecting Hidan's rage. He'd even considered the possibility that Hidan might attack him for bringing him this far, but he wasn't about to give up now. He'd simply have to find a way to play up the nostalgic glimmer he'd seen in Hidan's eye. He sighed in annoyance, trying to maintain his cool. They'd come this far and all that mattered now was getting Hidan to agree to kill Sang Waru.

"I don't know if he's here or not...I thought I killed him, but..."

"I know he's here Hidan. He's more here than you realize. No doubt you've heard about the warlord that controls this village?"

"Of fucking course I have heard!"

Kakuzu wanted to ask: _Are you really so dense?_ But instead he said "The bounty I am after is a tyrannical warlord by the name of Osoroshi War and I have reason to believe that he is the same Sang Waru that I've heard you mention in your sleep."

Hidan colored with mock rage, but Kakuzu could tell it was embarrassment. Hidan wasn't exactly the soundest of sleepers and more than once Kakuzu had found him sleep walking or crying out in the middle of the night. Aside from the ridiculously large sum of ryo he'd be getting from this bounty, he hoped that if they completed this mission that he'd finally be able to get some peace and quiet at night.

~!~

Everything Kakuzu was saying made so much sense to Hidan. Of course Osoroshi War was likely the very Sang Waru that Hidan had left on that bloody alter so many years ago. It wasn't hard for him to look down upon the iron path and imagine his sixteen year old self fleeing the carnage of Kaiden's murder. He'd murdered his best friend with his own hands, and shortly after that he'd murdered his family and single-handedly collapsed the very system he'd held dear. He had been responsible for destroying the ninja hierarchy of Yugakure, but he hadn't done it alone. Sang Waru had been the one pulling all of the strings, the strings that had been forcibly attached to Hidan's heart in the very forest they stood in now.

**~!~ Six Years Earlier ~!~**

"This will hurt, but it will feel so good..." Sang Waru thrust the naginata into his own heart and Hidan convulsed on the ground. It felt like his chest was going to explode. A wave of blood came up his throat and spilled over his lips. He was dying. Blood spilled from Sang Waru's mouth as he clumsily knelt down to straddle Hidan's waist.

"You're going to die now Hidan, but I..." Sang Waru paused with a laughing scoff that sprayed Hidan's face with blood. "Lord Jashin, will give you new life." Sang Waru grinned, showing his bloodied teeth. Hidan's vision was fading in and out and all he wanted now was an end to all of the pain he felt. In his delusion he could barely process what Sang Waru was saying and the last thing he saw before everything went black was Sang Waru's face closing in on his own for a blood filled kiss.

Hidan awoke with a gasp that drew blood into his lungs and made him cough so hard that he nearly threw up as he rolled onto his side. Sang Waru was lying beside him on the grass and smiled as their gazes met. In the large pendant on Sang Waru's necklace he could just barely see his reflection. He reached out and pulled the pendant towards himself. The few rays of sun that penetrated the tree canopy allowed him to see a face that was almost unrecognizable. A young face with slicked back silver hair, all features covered in blood except for his eyes. His lavender eyes. He released the pendant as if it had become a poisonous snake.

"What have you done to me!" Hidan screamed and pulled himself up into a sitting position.

Sang Waru remained on the grass, on his back with his hands resting behind his head as if he was watching the clouds. Hidan felt his shoulder, and then his chest, for the holes that had been there only moments ago, for the wounds that had surely killed him. Yet, there were no wounds that he could find. He was more sore than he'd ever been in his life but he was alive and apparently unscathed.

"What I have done, Hidan, is to give you immortality." Sang Waru turned his head to look at Hidan with an arrogant smile. Sang Waru stood up and rubbed a hand against his own chest. "Do you feel it- the power of Jashin?"

Hidan was sore, yes, but now that he looked up at Sang Waru's smiling face he realized that the pain he was experiencing was somehow sweet. It was as if he'd gone for a long run or had a good workout. He felt exhilarated. Sang Waru reached out a hand.

"Come and be with me, and live forever. Walk the unrighteous path of almighty Jashin and never again feel the rejection you felt from all of the people in your village, in your family."

"They wanted to become a peaceful village and dissolve the academy, but I... I've always felt these urges. I tried to contain them, channel them somehow, but I've always felt the desire to kill things to...," Hidan hesitated, but then reached up to take Sang Waru's hand.

"To bathe in their blood, I know. Focusing on building your skills as a shinobi helped you release some of that energy; but Hidan, you snapped and killed Kaiden because he and his father couldn't see how important it was for you to have an outlet. Kaiden was no friend to you, and now that he is dead you are free to be yourself." Sang Waru lifted Hidan to his feet, "A killer."

Hidan looked down at the pendant again, his own reflection wavering back at him in the dying light. _Is that who I am? _he wondered. His heart ached for Kaiden, but there was something else inside of him now, some new power just waiting to be acknowledged and embraced.

"Tell me about Lord Jashin."


End file.
